Biography
Albert Brooks was born on September 10, 1888 in Illinois; the precise locality and his death remain unresolved. He was prosecuted in Beaverhead County case 735 under Montana state sedition law for distributing the IWW pamphlet War and the Workers, by Walker C. Smith. The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly records his arrest in Dillon on February 28, 1918. He received a seven-to-fifteen-year sentence. The Montana Sedition Project records entry into Deer Lodge prison on May 24, 1918 and release on May 4, 1920. The Montana Supreme Court reversed his conviction on April 8, 1920. The exact sentencing date remains unresolved; the roster reports May 20, 1918, while May 24 is the prison-entry date in the Montana Sedition Project, not an independently confirmed verdict date.
The original Montana State Prison intake form lists an age of 29, birth in Illinois, and occupation as laborer. It records actual receipt at Deer Lodge on 1918-05-24 and sentencing on 1918-05-23 in the state sedition case. The admission is distinguished from an earlier arrest, and the printed sentence is distinguished from actual service; no physical discharge is supplied. It includes named frontal and profile photographs. Its May 23 sentencing entry differs from an earlier roster’s May 20 transcription; May 24 remains the separately confirmed prison admission. Source: https://clcowgill.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/a-m.pdf#page=3
1920s date review: The contemporary IWW roster reports arrest in Dillon on February 28, 1918. The Montana Sedition Project identifies May 24, 1918 as entry into Deer Lodge and May 4, 1920 as release. These are distinct events. Its reported duration is rounded; the unsupported twelve-month field has been cleared. One Big Union Monthly, March 1920, page 7; Montana Sedition Project, University of Montana School of Journalism.
The original Montana State Prison descriptive intake form records the sentence date as 1918-05-23 and records the plea/trial response as: Did not plead guilty; stood trial. This sentencing entry is separate from receipt at the penitentiary.
